In this photo provided by New Line, Kevin Costner (left) as Denny and Joan Allen as Terry in New Line Cinemas upcoming comedic drama, "The Upside of Anger." (AP Photo/New Line Productions/ Paul Chedlow)

In a rare adult moment, Hollywood gave the go-ahead to "The Upside of Anger" -- the kind of drama that's become a dinosaur on screens overrun by computer-generated creatures. The characters are actually believable, and the messes they get into approximate real life.

So the temptation is to forgive a plot hole big enough to drive an 18- wheeler through, especially while transfixed by Joan Allen and Kevin Costner as an unlikely couple brought together by fate and geographic proximity. These wondrous performances would evoke the O word if it weren't so soon after the last Oscar ceremony.

Allen stars as Terry, a suburban Detroit housewife whose husband abruptly runs off to Sweden with his secretary, leaving her a large house and four headstrong daughters to care for. Anger contorts this abandoned wife's face, deepening the lines between her nose and mouth. When Terry screams at her children out of frustration, the veins on her neck pop out. Often shot with no makeup, Allen gives the most naked performance possible with your clothes on.

Costner is her neighbor, a retired baseball player named Denny in homage to Detroit Tigers great Denny McLain. Hollywood's onetime golden boy has been in a slump lately, but playing sluggers is something he knows how to do, and in "Anger," he hits one out of the park. Costner is built like an athlete, agile and loose. His Denny is still loose even though he's gone soft with the beginnings of a paunch.

This is a man whose best years are behind him. As he tells Terry while trying to convince her to sell her land so a subdivision can be built on it, "I'm just a front man flashing my World Series ring. They get the sales -- I get a free lot out of it." Costner makes Denny's resignation palpable in the embarrassed way he autographs baseballs for money -- his shoulders are hunched and his head hung low.

Mike Binder wrote and directed "The Upside of Anger," and he brings to it the same sensibility of his underappreciated HBO series, "The Mind of the Married Man." Binder knows that people behave foolishly but are also capable of noble acts. Terry and Denny's bumpy relationship is a prime example. It develops from a mutual appreciation for the numbing effects of alcohol. Denny sneaks into her bathroom while she's showering. Covered only in a towel, she orders him out; Denny agrees to leave, but says the drink he's poured for her goes with him. She grabs the martini glass like the drunk she's turned into.

Their sex scenes can't compare with Costner and Susan Sarandon's wild lovemaking in "Bull Durham." He was an aging baseball player in that one, but not quite over the hill. Still, it's fun to see Allen and Costner crack up after their odd couple's first time in the sack.

Exercising a screenwriter's prerogative, Binder has penned a juicy role for himself as Shep, the producer of Denny's radio talk show, which was supposed to be about baseball except that the host finds the subject a bore and would rather offer stock tips. Shep is one of those slimy men who use their vaulted position to attract women half their age. When he takes up with Terry's 18-year-old, Mom lets him know exactly what she thinks of his behavior by punching him out.

The daughters are played by Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell and Alicia Witt. They're talented actresses able to portray the girls as wise beyond their years. One slight quibble -- they look nothing at all like one another or Allen. Usually, casting directors strive to construct a family where there's at least a slight resemblance.

The bigger problem is that plot hole. It doesn't give anything away to say it has to do with a death, since "Anger" begins with a funeral. At the end, when you discover who is laid out in the coffin, you leave the theater scratching your head more in utter confusion than in anger.